After spending a night in this small village, Yu Qingxian continued on her way early the next morning.
At the pace of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, she should be able to reach that city by tonight.
She had barely charged her phone a little, but it wouldn't last long.
Fortunately, the road ahead was downhill, so the Tyrannosaurus Rex didn't need to pull the sled, which could slide down on its own.
As they approached the edge of the city, Yu Qingxian saw many roadblocks.
There were even many zombie corpses behind the roadblocks.
Further up the road, the cars were piled up.
Indeed, if she wanted to enter the city from this road, she would have to abandon the sled.
Yet Yu Qingxian had grown accustomed to using this sled and found it hard to part with.
After all, it was very useful and could carry many things.
Most importantly, there were quite a few humans nearby, and they seemed to be quite close to her.
Although Yu Qingxian knew there were people nearby and close to her, she was still startled when she suddenly heard their voice.
The other person also sensed Yu Qingxian's shudder and quickly apologized: "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. We met two days ago, do you remember?"
Hearing the voice, Yu Qingxian recognized it as the woman who had given her the smoke bombs.
The voice sounded slightly hoarse, but the woman seemed to be around her age or a few years older.
She recognized this person's scent.
A bit like the smell of pine trees.
"The road ahead is impassable, with cars blocking it for about ten miles. The roadblocks in this area were set up by us. There aren't many zombies around here, except for some pesky mountain monkeys. It's all good. Do you need to stay at our shelter for the night?" The woman noticed Yu Qingxian slowly moving behind the big white dog and her voice becoming quieter.
She seemed to realize something.
Then she spoke again: "Don't worry, we have plenty of rooms, and we can leave one just for you. And if you want to go to the city, there's a small path up ahead."
Yu Qingxian had no idea how to handle the woman's kindness and stood behind the Tyrannosaurus Rex, scratching her head in bewilderment.
But she couldn't say a word.
The woman seemed adept at dealing with people who didn't like talking or even interacting with others.
She turned and started walking ahead, even talking to herself: "Our shelter is up ahead. If you're not good at interacting with people, just follow a short distance behind me."
Yu Qingxian leaned on the back of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, staring at the woman's back for a while, then patted the dinosaur and followed the woman up the path.
Indeed, she needed a path.
The woman didn't seem too surprised that Yu Qingxian followed.
Yu Qingxian remained silent, just listening as the woman continued talking to herself: "I used to have a younger brother who was like you, not much of a talker. He would stay by himself wherever he went. I'd accompany him."
At this point, the woman suddenly paused.
Her tone was gentle and relaxed, not putting any pressure on Yu Qingxian.
This even made Yu Qingxian's steps quicken slightly.
"By the way, I'm the person in charge of this shelter. My name is Shi Xingtian. You can call me Sister Shi or Sister Tian, though I don't know if I'm older than you." Shi Xingtian, the woman, spoke up.
Yu Qingxian didn't originally care whether this person was in charge of the shelter or not, but when she heard the woman's name was Shi Xingtian, she couldn't help but touch her backpack.
Could she be Shi Xingyu's sister?
But since she couldn't speak human language, she had no way to ask.
Shi Xingtian did indeed lead Yu Qingxian to a room.
Outside the wall.
This place must have been a small village before, but now it was surrounded by a high wall.
There weren't many survivors inside, probably just a few hundred people.
"You can stay here. Don't worry, I'll tell them not to disturb you. If you want to leave, wait till morning and follow this path to go down." Shi Xingtian pointed to a path ahead.
It looked newly built.
They must use it to go down to the city to find supplies.
Yu Qingxian was in a hurry at this point.
She could only open her backpack, take out Shi Xingyu's student ID, rush over, and stuff it into Shi Xingtian's hand.
Then she pulled her hat down to cover her eyes.
Shi Xingtian was startled by Yu Qingxian's actions, but when she saw the student ID with dried blood stains that Yu Qingxian had shoved into her hand, her face instantly turned pale.
Although her scarf obscured most of her expression, Yu Qingxian could still see her slightly trembling hands.
Indeed...
This person was Shi Xingyu's sister.
So Shi Xingyu still had family alive in this world.
There were still people who loved him.
"May I ask where you got this student ID?" Shi Xingtian managed to control her emotions despite being agitated, because she knew that the person holding her brother's student ID must have met her brother.
The blood stains on the ID made her fear that her brother's chances of survival were slim.
It had been almost a year since the zombie outbreak began. She finally had news about her brother.
When the outbreak first happened, she had gone to look for her brother but couldn't find him.
She was also worried about their parents, so she returned here.
But their parents didn't make it out.
She had thought that if her brother had the chance, he would come back here, so she had been waiting.
Her brother had always been quite withdrawn and didn't like interacting with others from a young age. She had worked hard for many years to become his high school homeroom teacher, finally allowing him to integrate somewhat into school life. And then this doomsday scenario happened.
Shi Xingtian felt the world had been truly unfair to her brother.
Seeing Shi Xingtian so anxious, Yu Qingxian didn't know how to respond at first. After a moment, she took out her phone to type a message for Shi Xingtian.
But the moment she opened the notepad app, her phone shut off automatically due to low battery.
Yu Qingxian was instantly petrified.
Oh no!
Her only means of communicating with humans was gone.
Seeing Yu Qingxian's panicked look, Shi Xingtian assumed she couldn't speak and tried to calm her down.
"It's okay, you can write it down. Writing it down works too."
Hearing this only made Yu Qingxian more anxious.
She couldn't write, which was why she wanted to type on her phone.
"Don't worry, no need to get so tense. Just rest first. Thank you for giving me my brother's student ID. I'm already very grateful for that." Shi Xingtian squeezed Yu Qingxian's wrist through her clothes, trying to help her calm down.
And miraculously, being grabbed by the wrist through her clothes did help Yu Qingxian regain her composure.
She parted her lips slightly: "He..."
Then Yu Qingxian was startled, realizing that speaking would expose her identity as a zombie.
"He what?" Shi Xingtian was a bit surprised, it turned out this person could talk.
And Shi Xingtian's words made Yu Qingxian pause, realizing she could understand her.
"He, Shi Xingyu, is someone I met in a... small town... He turned into a zombie." Yu Qingxian spoke with some effort, feeling a slight stinging in her throat as she said these words.
It was completely different from when she spoke with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and other zombies.
She glanced furtively at Shi Xingtian's expression from under her hat, observing her reaction.
If Shi Xingtian realized she was a zombie, then Yu Qingxian would have to knock her out and run away.
Even if she was Shi Xingyu's sister.